MainFrame - [BxG] [Romance | Hard SciFi] Beta available now!

[bcubeandy]

Links to download the MainFrame Act 1 Beta can be found at:
our website (http://www.bcubestudios.com)
our subreddit (https://redd.it/69t57a)
or at the bottom of this post



What is MainFrame?
In short, MainFrame is a romance VN with some important science fiction elements.
You are Mason, a highschool graduate who, after failing to be accepted to every college he applied to, is given a second chance at one of the world's best educational institutes; NEST.
Mason's Uncle Evans is a researcher at NEST, and has brought Mason on as a trusted test subject of his latest big invention.
While at NEST, Mason will meet some new people, make some friends, and maybe acquaint himself with a fine young lady.

Show me the girls!






Here is our Act 1 Intro sequence



And some screenshots for good measure:









Why we're here
We're looking for feedback on our beta which covers the first 16 days of Act 1 (which is 24 days total) -- this is a little over 60,000 words of content.
There are some missing visuals and we're currently expanding out BGM but the writing is pretty much good to go.
We have a Google form here: https://goo.gl/forms/JWE0jykJDE8oRWiE3
You can contact by email at: contact@bcubestudios.com
And of course you can provide feedback in this thread.

We're looking forward to taking this project further and we will take your feedback seriously to make MainFrame as great as possible.


Download Links

Windows: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9JvZ9 ... 9hZlU/view
Mac: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9JvZ9 ... RILVE/view
Linux: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9JvZ9 ... F1LVU/view
Android (largely untested): https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9JvZ9 ... BZb1k/view

Where to find out more about MainFrame

Our website: http://www.bcubestudios.com
Our subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/bcube
Our twitter: http://www.twitter.com/bcubestudios

If you have any questions feel free to ask and I'll do my best to answer them

[gekiganwing]

I remember seeing this project on at least one sub-Reddit in the recent past. When I looked through r/Bcube today, I was surprised to realize that it's been in development for about three years.

In my opinion, when a freeware visual novel spends a relatively long time in development, that can be cause for concern. There have been quite a few works-in-progress which stop updating after a while. If you dig through Lemma Soft thread archives, you'll find plenty of promising stories which are now just talk about the creators' plans, or maybe a demo. Consider reading the discussion topic about why many free VNs end up unfinished.

... MainFrame is a romance VN with some important science fiction elements... Mason's Uncle Evans is a researcher at NEST, and has brought Mason on as a trusted test subject of his latest big invention.
While at NEST, Mason will meet some new people, make some friends, and maybe acquaint himself with a fine young lady.

1. What will your visual novel do which is exceptional, or distinct? Will there be something notable about its pacing, character development, theme, art style, or something else?

2. Will you fund development in any way? Would you benefit by selling merchandise / spinoffs? Could MainFrame make money as an indie VN?

[Shanix]

Hi I'm Shanix, Programming Lead and Archivist for BCube, I think I can answer either of these. Andy said he'll post as well soon enough.

I remember seeing this project on at least one sub-Reddit in the recent past. When I looked through r/Bcube today, I was surprised to realize that it's been in development for about three years.

It horrifies us even more knowing we've been at this for 2.5 years.

1. What will your visual novel do which is exceptional, or distinct? Will there be something notable about its pacing, character development, theme, art style, or something else?

We're hoping to approach topics of science fiction while staying grounded through the eyes of an easy to understand protagonist - keep it close to home. Instead of being bombastic and experiencing a massive upheaval of galactic politics or leading a resistance, or adapt to new (dis)abilities, you're experiencing the anxiety of going to a new school, where tech is king and anyone not update to date is left behind. We want some subjects, like the right to privacy and automation of employment, to be truly felt by the reader. We know it'll be difficult, and likely impossible, we'd like to try.

Are we making a ground breaking VN the likes of which will never be seen? Probably not, we're saving that for Plants in Pants. But we're getting our feet in the water and seeing what works and doesn't right now.

We are, of course, aiming to get feedback and find things we need to change/fix right now, so as to what MainFrame will be in the far far future of (holy fuck MainFrame starts in a year), we're unsure. But hey, you're welcome to tell us how we're wrong.

2. Will you fund development in any way? Would you benefit by selling merchandise / spinoffs? Could MainFrame make money as an indie VN?

At the moment, we are only considering funding BCube with the money in our pockets, and have no plans for selling BCube at any price other than free. Though it's only been asked once, we refused donations and are hesitant to ask for any money to begin with - we're all aware of the many cases of people backing Kickstarters or GoFundMes and seeing nothing from it. We don't want to be another one. Because of this, we have no immediate plans for what we would do if we suddenly started selling merchandise or additional VNs. Personally, I'd like to say we start an LLC or something and use that money to keep developing. At worst, we'll all buy pizza and have a Dev Party at some point. Admittedly, we've toyed around with starting a Kickstarter to fund CGs and some art, but we're unsure if we could actually hit our goal, or that we'll be able to deliver a product in a timely manner.

Could MainFrame make money? Probably not. There's way too much supply of VNs that making a profit, let alone any money, looks doubtful.

I would like some NEST flash drives, though.

[bcubeandy]

I understand your concerns about us dying off and never finishing the project - we've been asked about it a few times before. Honestly, I think the fact that we've gotten this far and finally have this beta out is a testament to our resolve.

We all had no idea what we were doing when we started and we made some decisions that weren't so great as a result of that. I think almost everything from the first year (maybe more) of development has been redrawn/rewritten/etc. We've learnt the lessons of visual novel development the hard way but I think we've come out better because of it.

We're not here to make a quick buck (infact we're not out to make a profit at all). We want MainFrame to be something we're proud of and something we would read and love ourselves. If it takes us another 3 years to actually finish it then so be it.

Shanix pretty much answered your two actual questions for me. In regards to your first, personally I think our writing and seeing how the characters interact and play off of eachother is very fun to read.

[Nuxill]

You don't see a lot of hard SciFi stories out there, at least not in visual novel format. The premise and concepts you want to explore are intriguing.

I am a little iffy on the character of Abigail though, because I feel like it would be very easy to turn her into a "femnazi" stereotype. While there are legitimate criticisms for feminism (especially the fact that it tends to focus solely on white cis women) I hope that you don't fall into the trap of making her a caricature that the main character has the ability to "change the mind of".

Now, I haven't played the demo yet, so this could just be totally off the mark on my part. I might pick it up in a few days after I get some work done.

I didn't see you mention patreon in Shanix's post, perhaps you could use that platform as a way to get extra funds? It's easier than a kickstarter and you don't have to worry about not meeting a specific numeric goal.

[Shanix]

You don't see a lot of hard SciFi stories out there, at least not in visual novel format. The premise and concepts you want to explore are intriguing.

Thanks! I may have pushed a bit hard on keeping it a little soft around the edges but we're definitely trying not to be zany and wild.

I am a little iffy on the character of Abigail though, because I feel like it would be very easy to turn her into a "femnazi" stereotype. While there are legitimate criticisms for feminism (especially the fact that it tends to focus solely on white cis women) I hope that you don't fall into the trap of making her a caricature that the main character has the ability to "change the mind of".

I'll ping Jasper, her lead writer, to get his full opinion on this but from what I recall he and the rest of the writing team have works very hard to keep Abigail from being a strawman for the sake of being a strawman.

I didn't see you mention patreon in Shanix's post, perhaps you could use that platform as a way to get extra funds? It's easier than a kickstarter and you don't have to worry about not meeting a specific numeric goal.

My concern with the patreon is that we don't have a lot to offer in term of updates - we actually stopped doing weekly updates last year because we more or less ran out of content to show off while we were editing and programming. If we can't show off that we're getting work done, then it's the same state as the kickstarter like I mentioned - we're taking money for no product. But I'll definitely put this down on our weekly agenda for consideration. Thanks!

[Nuxill]

I'll ping Jasper, her lead writer, to get his full opinion on this but from what I recall he and the rest of the writing team have works very hard to keep Abigail from being a strawman for the sake of being a strawman.

My concern with the patreon is that we don't have a lot to offer in term of updates - we actually stopped doing weekly updates last year because we more or less ran out of content to show off while we were editing and programming. If we can't show off that we're getting work done, then it's the same state as the kickstarter like I mentioned - we're taking money for no product. But I'll definitely put this down on our weekly agenda for consideration. Thanks!

Thank you for the reply! I'm glad you're working to make sure she's not a strawman.

Also I don't think you'd have to do weekly updates for patreon, I patron several people who sometimes only update once a month. Even if you just posted things like extra little doodles of the characters, or maybe articles on how you've approached making the visual novel and how you dealt with your successes and failures I think there would be people who would be interested.

[Jaspirian]

Hi. My name's Jasper, and I like cute girls. Actually, I like girls who are cute despite having things about them that makes them uncute. That's my favorite.

If my job is to make you fall in love with a character I write (that's my job), then why would I want to make her a strawman? That's no good at all. Characters without depth and interesting bits to them aren't captivating at all. I'd have better luck endearing a piece of cardboard to you.

Here's something I wrote about her in a previous update.

Abigail, not by name but certainly by personality, was always bouncing around in my head... I've never been satisfied in literature or in games or in anime, manga... and so on... by their depiction of the very real and very confusing struggle to find out how men and women fit together.
I wanted to take a woman, a real woman, in her growth and her terrible mish-mash of flaws and lies, inconsistencies and contrasts, put her in a medium where often a girl is a simple conquest and whose flaws make her evoke feelings of protection, not irritation or revulsion... and still make her lovable.

Let me know if that answers your question.

[Nuxill]

Let me know if that answers your question.

It does! I'm glad you're taking the care to make her fully fleshed out.

[Lesleigh63]

I like the look of your art.